There is no profit in selling them lower, yes you get volume but the volume isn't enough to off set the profit per unit, the more you sell the more you lose. Mustang is never going to be in that market, engine certification is millions in itself not to mention CAFE requirements.
Ford already offers a V8, RWD and aluminum body under BOF vehicle for 30K. Special order a stripper XL f-150 and you've got what you want.

The eCVT is a more technically advanced transmission than the 10 speed, but "better" is going to be hard to quantify for either they both are very good at what they do. The eCVT is more efficient, has lower driveline losses and allows the vehicle to operate more efficiently in use of energy. However it can't take a power load the way the 10 speed can which limits the uses in its current form.

Sales at the end of the day don't matter if you don't make money on them. The problem is that there still has been a sales loss when you look at 2013 to 2018 sales of the 300/Challenger/Charger, in a market that has gone up over million and a half units sold(15.6. in 2013 and 17.2 in 2018) 207,522 units were sold in 2013, in 2018 193,535 units were sold. That is 15K units out of an Assembly plant with fixed costs. It becomes harder and harder to justify development when you look at numbers and you know you can get much higher returns elsewhere with limited resources you have to invest.
People also need to realize that Ford is going to need to reinvent the Mustang, or it will die. Ford can't have the model survive in its current form as it isn't resonating with more and more buyers. If that's a 4 door addition, electric or do they push the model to corvette like pricing to allow enough profit for development to continue.

Well part of that is that Ford has issued over 3 Billion shares of new stock over that time as well. If Ford hadn't done that the stock would still be at $35+ per share, based on the current divided pay. They have funded things (VEBA, Loan payments) with stock issuance rather than bonds and diluted the shares. The family doesn't care about this as their voting rights remain the same; what Ford needs to do is stop issuing stock and try and slowly buy back the shares they have issued over the past 20 years.

Isn't it free if you download and do it yourself? I just did a coworkers Edge 2 weeks ago and it was free for the download, or I think $40/$50 if you wanted them to mail you a USB stick.
https://syncnavigation.com/ford/home or https://syncnavigation.com/lincoln/home
Just need a 32GB USB drive.

Also disabling it permanently is technically a crime in some states as you are tampering with the approved emissions of the vehicle. It could even get worse if you were in an accident as the vehicle is technically not street legal under EPA rules, on top if a vehicle were totaled and you were paid out you then sold a party (Insurance Company) a vehicle with a tampered emission control system.

Agree, when you're the only capable truck on the market it helps increase your share, the Frontier was garbage when it came out. If I were in the market it would be between a Ranger and a Tacoma. Tacoma resale value is insane, which means people with 3-4 year old ones can easily upgrade to newer models.
That study is absolute S*** the sample size is way to small to get any meaning full data, it would never pass peer review at any reputable university. "In February 2019 , CarGurus surveyed 1,067 current and former pickup truck owners. Among them, 581 currently own at least one pickup truck and 486 had owned a truck previously, but no longer do. Among the current pickup truck owners, 195 own a Ford pickup truck, 154 own a Chevrolet pickup truck, 106 own a Toyota pickup truck, and 101 own a Dodge/Ram pickup truck." There was 1.4 million pickup trucks sold in 2018 - This is nothing more than clickbait.

Also Ford in one of current programs it does NOT give additional conquest cash to Tacoma/Tundra/Ridgeline/Frontier owners. They must not view them as potential happy Ranger buyers. "Customers that currently Own a 1995 or newer or Lease a RAM, Dakota, Canyon, Sierra, or Silverado Truck will receive Conquest Cash towards the purchase or lease of an eligible new vehicle. - Current lease customers are not required to terminate their lease"

Oversold yes, but the small portion of the public electorate bought it and is pushing it. So now the group that doesn't own cars or even have a drivers licenses are in control of the message, I don't need a car or in most cases can't afford one so you shouldn't have one either. Point in time where technology is be damned; legislation to mandate them is coming. The People (Mob mentally of late) are demanding change so Politian's make laws that force corporations as they are evil, because most Politian's don't have a useful education they need to keep their job, you do this by appealing to a small group that will vote for you in a primary and being that now districts very partisan they get elected in the general election and just repeat the cycle. So you appeal to a very small but vocal and engaged group to keep your seat as you have to win the low voter turn out primary rather than the general election.
It is going to be interesting in how this all plays out, small mainstream manufactures are having a huge issue with this as their buyers don't want to pay. https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2019/09/03/subaru-other-small-carmakers-ev-mandates/2130087001/ What's going to be interesting is if they just pull out of some markets. Then the car buying public/dealer groups will demand their state change the laws when they can't get their preferred vehicle or dealerships start closing as they don't have product to sell.

Aztec did great in focus groups for the demographic it was targeting, the PT Cruiser bombed in them but Chrysler went ahead with it anyways.
Part of this was they were targeting the wrong markets, Aztec was targeting too young of a demographic that didn't have the funds to buy it. PT cruiser bombed with the target market of younger buyers because it looked old. It ended up working well because Older people liked it, and older people have money to buy things.